Student reclaims power and warns others

To the Editors:

I write this letter to break my silence and in the hopes of breaking the silence of other women who have suffered the same or similar experiences as myself. Since last May, my life has been turned upside down, and in several respects, been made into a living nightmare. My friends, professors and certain administrators have been witness to that.

I realize that in writing this letter, I risk several things, not the least of which being my anonymity as a survivor of rape. More importantly however, I have the opportunity to take back my power. For those reasons, I tell you my story. On Friday, May 8th, 1999, I attended a party at Zeke. There, I socialized, danced, drank - "partied" if you will. I also became heavily intimate with a young man who was also at the party.

We engaged in consensual sexual activity up to but not including sexual intercourse. In fact, when asked if I wanted to have sex, I said "no," explaining that "I don't get down like that." The next night, I attended the annual Tequila Formal at Stevenson with two girlfriends. As I left the party, I saw the guy with whom I had been intimate the night before, saying "hi" as we passed in the stairwell, acknowledging the night before as a casual "hook-up" as many might call it. About a half-hour later, a friend and I went to the after party that was being held at Zeke. There, I had a lot, and in retrospect too much, to drink. The last drink I took however, at the suggestion of that same young man, would be my last for the evening. About 10 minutes later, I blacked out and to this day have no recollection of what happened to me in the hours that followed. I woke up the next morning in North Hall, wearing my cocktail dress, fully zipped-up and my shoes still strapped on. I was lying on a bed and in a room, not my own, covered in my own vomit. I awoke around 8 a.m. and began wandering the halls of the dorm, confused and disoriented. In wandering the halls aimlessly for several minutes, I could feel the lining of my dress on skin that was a little too intimate. I was no longer wearing any underwear. I called a friend to pick me up. Later that day, upon another friend's suggestion, she and I went to Allen Memorial Hospital where I had a Rape Crisis Kit completed and collected by Oberlin Police. Later that night, I met with the assailant in the security office where he informed me that we had had sex and that he had left me in the room, passed out and covered in vomit, to go to another party and then sleep at a friend's house. He admitted that leaving me was "fucked up" but saw nothing wrong with having intercourse with an obviously drunken girl.

Two weeks later, the "incident" was taken before the Sexual Offense Review Committee where a panel of students, faculty and staff heard the case of Oberlin College vs. Name Withheld. Perhaps the most relevant factors of the story from this point on were and continue to be the faulty and ill-mannered way in which I feel the administration handled the case. After last spring's hearing, I was not notified of the decision that the panel reached, told that I was not considered a concerned party. Because I had not brought the complaint to the panel and the College had, I apparently had no right to know whether or not the man who raped me would be returning to campus in the Fall. Since September, I have been laughed at to my face by one of the College's highest administrator and told by another that the alleged assailant "is quite a charmer, you know!" When the suspicion arose that date rape drugs may have been used and that there were certainly other women to whom this kind of situation was not unfamiliar, the College again had no response. Only after receiving death and bomb threats on my answering machine a couple of weeks ago, did I sense the slightest concern for my safety on this campus. Assuming the incidents to be related, I believe several administrators have realized that the events of this year may not have even occurred had the College acted accordingly last year by punishing the person who raped me.

I remain at Oberlin only because I have two degrees to complete. Oberlin has severely disappointed me however. In a quest to retain students, the College has managed to retain a rapist at the risk of putting other female students in jeopardy.

--Name Withheld

Professor misrepresented by media

To the Editors:

I would like to express my views in connection with the recent events involving German professor Heidi Tewarson. While I am not aware of the exact sequence of court procedures and thus would not comment on the outcome, I think the way Prof. Tewarson has been represented in the local media is most disturbing. It requires just a quick glance at these articles to see that she has never been interviewed or asked in any way to explain the events involving her latest project from her point of view. It is unfortunate that she is portrayed as a malicious, calculating person. Also, it is strange that they cite no evidence to support this opinion; they didn't even get as far as telling the public what her motivation was to embark on this massive study. To say the least, the media is biased.

Another thing I would like to point out is the way the media has been harrassing Prof. Tewarson since the beginning of this ordeal. I myself was pushed aside by a TV reporter and a cameraman last year when they stormed into the classroom right after our class ended. They shoved the microphone in the professor's mouth the day after she went through an emotionally probing court hearing. It would take a very strong person to be able to maintain one's calm in this environment.

I invite our community to challenge the media and its biased representation of Prof. Tewarson's trial by writing to local news reporters and their editors.

--Balint Gergely, College senior

Review just rehashed bias

To the Editors:

In that Professor Heidi Thomann Tewarson is a college faculty member and the Review is our campus news source, before printing your article of 3 November, "Holocaust diaries returned," it was surely incumbent on you to interview her rather than rehash the biased reports of area newspapers. Had you done this in a proper and timely way, the doubts your article raises about Professor Tewarson's scholarly project could have been averted. Let me assure your readers, then, that my colleague indeed made clear from the start that her aim was to preserve the story of the Simon family as a book and thereby enlarge our knowledge of the Holocaust. That she has been prevented from achieving this represents an injustice that your article could have clarified.

--Sidney Rosenfeld, Professor of German

Goldsmith responds

To the Editors:

The sabotage of the commentary section of the Review last Friday has made light of our community's efforts this semester to come together over issues of multiculturalism. I am saddened that an individual's malicious mischief has caused hurt to the several letter writers and the communities of which they are a part, and I hope that this will incite all of us to redouble our efforts to understand the diverse needs and perspectives represented at Oberlin. I believe we are starting to develop the means of discussing the complex interplay of race, ethnicity, class and sexual orientation at Oberlin, and I look forward to working with students, faculty and staff in the spring to help Oberlin reach its best ideals.

--Peter Goldsmith, Dean of Student Life and Services